Susie Williamson Stageberg is known as the "Mother of the Farmer-Labor Party." The Red Wing activist spent a lifetime fighting for unpopular political and social causes. She strongly opposed the merger of the Democratic and Farmer-Labor Parties in the 1940s.

Susie Williamson was born on January 30, 1877 to Ole and Kristi Williamson. She was born and grew up in Badger, Iowa near Fort Dodge. She attended Tobin College in Fort Dodge and taught at rural schools. Susie also worked as a reporter for the Fort Dodge Messenger.

At age twenty-one, Williamson married professor Olaf O. Stageberg. Olaf landed a job in Minnesota teaching at the Red Wing Seminary, and the Stagebergs moved there around 1910. Followers of Hans Hauge opened the seminary in 1879. Hauge was a forceful Norwegian lay preacher who challenged Lutheran church leaders.

Susie Stageberg made an impression at the tradition-bound Seminary. The church school began admitting women students in 1914, thanks largely to her efforts. The Stagebergs raised funds to improve educational programs.

Stageberg was active in her church and community. She supported the temperance movement and its attempt to limit alcohol use. Stageberg became president of Red Wing's Women's Christian Temperance Union. In 1918 Stageberg backed her husband's campaign to become Minnesota's governor. He ran on the ticket of the National Party, an anti-alcohol group, and lost.

Afterward, Stageberg focused on her own political career. She joined the Nonpartisan League (NPL) in 1920 when the Prohibition Party broke up. The socialist-leaning NPL worked to improve the lives of farmers. During World War I, critics attacked the group as anti-American. By joining the NPL, Stageberg showed that she was not afraid of being branded a political radical.

In the early 1920s, Fred A. Scherf of Red Wing hired Stageberg to edit his newspaper, The Organized Farmer. She used the weekly paper to criticize business and government policies that she felt harmed farmers. Stageberg also wrote a column, "As a Woman Sees It," for the Minnesota Leader. She served as executive secretary of the Women's Nonpartisan Clubs of Minnesota from 1922 to 1925.

In 1922, Stageberg gave a speech that earned her the title "Mother of the Farmer-Labor Party." She and other NPL leaders teamed with members of the Minnesota Federation of Labor. They wanted to form a Farmer-Labor (F-L) Party. This party would unite farmer interests with labor interests. Stageberg's speech at the important meeting created support for the political union.

The Farmer-Labor Party nominated Stageberg to run for Secretary of State in 1922, 1924, and 1928. She was unsuccessful. The F-L had little success with voters until the Great Depression. During the mid-1920s, their candidates usually finished ahead of Democrats but behind Republicans in statewide elections.

By 1944, Farmer-Labor and Democratic leaders were talking about uniting to combat Republican dominance in Minnesota. Stageberg was one of only two leaders who opposed the merger, and actively fought against it. She thought the move would weaken the socialist wing of the new party. F-L governor Elmer A. Benson went along with the alliance, but he later regretted it. He said Stageberg had been right. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party came into being in April 1944.

By 1950 Susie Stageberg was fed up with DFL leadership and resigned as Goodhue County party secretary. She claimed, "Wall Street monopolists and professional militarists" ran the DFL. The feisty seventy-three year-old wrote, "We were called 'Red Bolsheviks' and 'Free Lovers' in the twenties. We must dare to be called 'Communists' now." That year she ran for lieutenant governor on the Progressive party ticket. She lost.

Stageberg, Susie W. "Contribution of Women to the Building of the Farmer Labor Party." Report of the Sixth State Convention, Farmer-Labor Women's Clubs of Minnesota. St. Paul: Willmar Tribune Print, 1932.

A/.T263
Henry G. Teigan Papers, undated and 1916–1941
Manuscript Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paulhttp://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/m0182.pdf
Description: Correspondence and other material collected by Teigan as a participant in the Farmer-Labor movement; as secretary of the National Nonpartisan League (1916-1923). Stageberg is listed among the "authors" in Teigan's files.

Secondary

Bingham, Marjorie. "Keeping At It: Minnesota Women," in Clifford E. Clark, Jr., ed. Minnesota in a Century of Change: The State and Its People Since 1900. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1989.

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Turning Point

In 1922, Susie Williamson Stageberg becomes known as the "Mother of the Farmer-Labor Party" after giving a speech in favor of the new party.

Chronology

1877

Susie Williamson is born in Badger, Iowa.

1898

Williamson marries Olaf O. Stageberg

c.1910

The Stagebergs move to Minnesota where he accepts a professorship at Red Wing Seminary.

1914

Susie Stageberg plays an important part in getting female students admitted to Red Wing Seminary.

1915

She serves as president of Red Wing's Women's Christian Temperance Union.

1918

Stageberg assists in her husband's unsuccessful campaign to become Minnesota's governor as the National (Prohibition) party candidate.

1922

During an important Minneapolis speech, Stageberg urges the merger of farmer and labor groups into the Minnesota Farmer-Labor party. She is called "Mother of the Farmer-Labor party."

1920s

Stageberg runs unsuccessfully for Minnesota Secretary of State in 1922, 1924, and 1928.

1944

She argues against the merger of Minnesota's Democratic and Farmer-Labor (DFL) parties, but the union is approved.

1950

Frustrated by DFL policies, Stageberg angrily resigns as Goodhue County party secretary and quits the party. She runs for Minnesota lieutenant governor on that Progressive party ticket but fails to win election.

1961

Stageberg dies in Red Wing.

Comments

This biography is incorrect in at least one detail. Susie and Olaf were employed by Waldorf College, in Forest City, Iowa, for a period prior to moving to Red Wing Seminary. My father, Rolf W. Stageberg, was born in Forest City in March, 1907 and was referred to as "the Waldorf baby".